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UFC 111 ‘St. Pierre vs Hardy’ takes place Saturday, March 27, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and will air live on pay-per-view at 10PM ET/7PM PT. The official UFC 111 fight card can be found in our fight cards section.

“You know I don’t know what he [Frank Mir] thought… he’s still trying to pull his foot out of his mouth and when you say something like that and your wife has to go out and apologize for you, you know you pissed somebody off. I think his wife made the apology before he did probably…But you know in this sport of fighting. Fighting has come so far in such a short amount of time. We want to perceive ourselves as athletes and get the respect of the general public. Yeah it was out of line but in the fighters mentally I don’t want to go in the Octagon and kill somebody but I do want to do whatever I can to win. And maybe that’s what he was saying, I don’t know…But the guy should probably just focus on the task in front of him which is Shane Carwin because if Shane Carwin beats his ass he won’t be fighting me…. Hopefully he gets past Shane Carwin so I can put another beat down on him. For a guy to take an ass whopping like the last I gave him and for him to get up and keep running his mouth. You know I just got to laugh at it…I got to go back to a quote that he said before my second fight. He said if Brock Lesnar beats me, He will become the greatest mixed martial artist ever. And I guess he’s eating his words and he doesn’t want to say that again, he doesn’t want to admit that I am that much better than him…But I am truly hoping that Frank wins this fight so it sets us up for July and maybe the next beat down will … (laughs) I don’t know what I have to do to shut him up.”

—Brock Lesnar in an interview with KFAN Sports Radio, transcript via BE, sharing his thoughts on Frank Mir’s controversial remarks about him

Now that we have Lesnar’s reaction it’s time to finally put this story to bed.

Frank Mir issued a formal apology the other day for his controversial comments about Brock Lesnar. With public apologies though, there’s often a lingering question about its sincerity. In most cases we’ll never know, however in this one it looks like Frank Mir is giving us the answer. You tell me, does this sound like a man who is sorry for what he said?

“When I got called in and they told me, ‘Listen man, this is an issue,’ I kind of had a smirk on my face the whole time,” says Mir, who was quoted in a public apology for the remark on the UFC’s Web site earlier this week. “I was like, you’re kidding, right? This is a joke, right? I’ve heard people say that this is to the death. I’ve heard people say about an opponent, ‘I’m going to kill him.’ I heard Brock say he was going to put his hand up my rear end to pull out a horseshoe. I didn’t hear anyone get too upset about that.”

“No one’s been able to explain it to me yet,” Mir says. “I thought we understood that what we say on camera is part of the entertainment aspect of our sport and we kind of get a little artistic license. It’s not like I said this to my neighbor, that if his dog shows up in my yard one more time I’m going to kill him. That would be bad. That’s a problem. I didn’t understand it, but hey, it came my way, I said it, and I can’t cry about it now. I’ve just got to deal with it, I guess.”

While I’m not a fan of insincere apologies, I’m sure the UFC didn’t give Frank much of a choice. He went a little overboard, was a little too specific, yeah, but let’s be serious, does Frank Mir actually want to break Brock Lesnar’s neck or watch him die of Octagon-related injuries? No, probably not, so I can kinda see where he’s coming from.

Meanwhile, PTI’s Mike Wilbon of all people defended Mir.

“It’s not out of line, I’m sorry this wouldn’t even make the top 50 awful things Mike Tyson said he was going to do to an opponent some time that week before a big match in Vegas,” Wilbon said when asked about Mir’s comments.

“This is just how you promote boxing, MMA, wrestling, this is par for the course.”

The man has a point.

Image via ESPN.com

Word of the inflammatory comments Frank Mir made about Brock Lesnar last week has finally gotten back to Dana White and the UFC. At this point in the company’s life cycle, perhaps the only thing that could truly destroy what they’ve built is a death in the Octagon, so it goes without saying that they weren’t too pleased when they heard the interview. In fact, they’ve released an official statement on Dana White’s behalf expressing his disappointment in Frank Mir.

“I was disappointed by Frank Mir’s comments,” said White. “Frank’s been with the UFC a long time, he’s a two-time heavyweight champion and a commentator for the WEC.  I think his emotions are running high right now, he has a big fight coming up next month and he’s still upset about his loss to Lesnar.  He’s been talked to, he regrets what he said, and he won’t be saying anything like that again.”

In a text to Carmichael Dave, Dana was a little more, shall we say, himself.

“Frank Mir is a fu**ing idiot! I have never heard something so unprofessional and idiotic in my life.”

While Dana has never made any psuedo death threats he has a long history of unprofessional rants and remarks, so it’s kinda funny hearing that from him, but I guess that’s besides the point. Frank Mir arguably crossed the line, though he regrets what he said and issued a formal apology to Brock, his family, the UFC and its fans.

“I would like to apologize to Brock Lesnar, his family, the UFC and the UFC fans for my stupid remarks,” said Mir. “I respect Brock, all the other fighters, and the sport of mixed martial arts.  I’m sorry that I stepped out of line.”

Cagewriter grabbed the audio from the original interview if you missed it. It doesn’t sound as bad in the context of the interview as it looks in print, but it’s still a little much even for someone as outspoken as Frank Mir.

Image via CombatLifestyle.com

“A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct. I’d rather go ahead and say what’s on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC ‘Oh, the guy is a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him.’ If I don’t mean it, why is it even coming out of my mouth? … I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person. I want to break his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That’s what’s going through my mind.”

— Frank Mir in on WXDX radio, via Fanhouse, proclaiming he wants to kill Brock Lesnar in the Octagon

Naturally, these comments have created quite a stir in the MMA community. Many have taken it seriously and think Mir has gone too far to the point where the fight shouldn’t even happen. Me? I’m more with Zach Arnold. I think Frank has jumped the shark with this one. Thoughts?

The first details of UFC 116 are starting to leak out.

According to MMA Junkie, the event will likely take place in Las Vegas on July 3 and Brock Lesnar may headline.

The return of Brock Lesnar could come a day shy of Independence Day.

A well-placed UFC source told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the promotion is targeting July 3 for an event date in Las Vegas. An event venue for the show, which will likely be UFC 116, has not been determined, and the UFC has not yet reserved the date with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Frank Mir, Shane Carwin, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez are all possible candidates to face Lesnar when he does return, though the Mir-Carwin winner will likely get the nod. If it is Mir and it happens in July, can you say deja-vu? Sounds a lot like UFC 100, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t mind seeing Lesnar and Mir go at it again as much as the next guy, but fighting the same opponent in three out of your six professional fights is a little much, isn’t it?

Tickets for UFC 111 are set to go on sale later this week.

UFC 111 is scheduled to take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Saturday, March 27. The card will be headlined by a welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy. In the co-main event, Frank Mir and Shane Carwin will battle it out for the interim heavyweight championship.

Ticket info below.

• UFC Fight Club Presale: Thursday, January 7
• UFC Newsletter Presale: Friday, January 8
• Public On-Sale Date: Saturday, January 9

Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster and Stubhub (who actually has tickets available now). Stubhub is a secondary ticket market where you can find the hard-to-find seats even when the event is “sold-out.”

The latest UFC 111 fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.

For the most part, we all have a pretty good idea about who the UFC’s top draws are. But it’s also nice to see the data which is exactly what the fine folks at MMA Payout compiled.

Cagewriter’s Steve Cofield talks to Frank Mir about Brock Lesnar and steroid allegations.